1953 through 1946 -- Daily Songs

This section went a little longer than most, but I really wanted to be done with it.

I'd said that before the advent of rock songs were a lot cornier and it was harder to find ones I liked. I had also mentioned there being more repetition.

For 1946, the first year of the Billboard Hot 35, there were two versions each of "Symphony" and "Rumors Are Flying", three versions of "The Gypsy", four versions of "Oh What It Seemed To Be", five versions of "To Each His Own". "The Old Lamplighter" was less obvious, but that's because it spread its charting across 1946 and 1947.

There was one point in my understanding of music where I was beginning to realize that a lot of the old "standards" were from musicals. That's not untrue, but it was not the whole truth.

Anyway, it's kind of a relief to be done with that and move on to other things.

This does not mean that I will not go musically back in time anymore, but it can't be through the same methods.

I might try looking up Hit Parade or other things -- there are books about music too -- but the immediate future is some Halloween-themed music that will segue into an early start to Native American Heritage month.

For these oldies, some of my thoughts were more with songs that I did not use. For example, one of the songs that came up was "I Believe", with multiple versions including by Frankie Laine in 1953. This and "High Hopes" was sometimes referenced on Laverne & Shirley. 

We watched it in the 70s, but it was set... well, there was an episode of Happy Days that was about Hawai'ian statehood, so around 1959. Okay, I guess that's about right. ("Jamaica Farewell" was in one of the Schott's talent show episodes, and that was from 1956.)

Another song that came up was "Oh My Papa", an old song but with a version by Eddie Fisher in 1954. It would have been completely unfamiliar, except that Krusty the Clown sang it to has rabbi father when they were reconciled on The Simpsons. It was unfamiliar to me, someone born in the 70s, but Matt Groening and James L. Brooks and even Conan O'Brien are older (by various amounts of years). That means they have memories of different things from what was contemporary for them, but also for what their parents hung on to from their own youths. 

What is familiar to us, and what a "standard" is and if that still exists and if someday people are going to have great nostalgia for Taylor Swift... those are all things that interest me.   

Again, I don't regret any of this. It is still a relief to do something else for a while. 

For now, put another dime in the jukebox, baby. 

1953

9/1 “The Song from Moulin Rouge” by Percy Faith feat. Felicia Sanders
9/2 “April In Portugal” by Les Baxter
9/3 “Dragnet” by Ray Anthony
9/4 “Rags to Riches” by Tony Bennett with Percy Faith
9/5 “C’est si bon” by Eartha Kitt

1952

9/6 “You Belong To Me” by Jo Stafford with Paul Weston
9/7 “The Glo-worm” by The Mills Brothers and Hal McIntyre
9/8 “Meet Mister Callaghan” by Les Paul
9/9 “I’m Yours” by Don Cornell with Norman Leyden
9/10 “Tell Me Why” by The Four Aces feat. Al Alberts

1951

9/11 “Undecided” by The Ames Brothers with The Les Brown Orchestra
9/12 “Down Yonder” by Del Wood
9/13 “Too Young” by Nat King Cole with Les Baxter
9/14 “Would I Love You (Love You, Love You)” by Patti Page
9/15 “I Get Ideas” by Tony Martin with Henri René

1950

9/16 “Third Man Theme” by Anton Karas
9/17 “I Can Dream, Can’t I” by The Andrews Sisters & Gordon Jenkins
9/18 “Rag Mop” by The Ames Brothers
9/19 “If I Knew You Were Coming I’d Have Baked a Cake” by Eileen Barton with Morty Craft
9/20 “My Foolish Heart” by Billy Eckstine

1949

9/21 “You’re Breaking My Heart” by Vic Damone
9/22 “Cruising Down the River” by Russ Morgan Orchestra
9/23 “So Tired” by Russ Morgan
9/24 “The Hucklebuck” by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra

-- vacation --

9/29 “Careless Hands” by Sammy Kaye Orchestra

1948

9/30 “Twelfth Street Rag” by Peewee Hunt
10/1 “Little White Lies” by Dick Haymes and Gordon Jenkins
10/2 “My Happiness” by Ella Fitzgerald with The Song Spinners
10/3 “St. Louis Blues March” by Tex Beneke
10/5“Beg Your Pardon” by Francis Craig

1947

10/4 “Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)” by Tex Williams
10/6 “Mam’selle” by Dick Haymes
10/7 “The Anniversary Song” by Guy Lombardo
10/8 “You Do” by Margaret Whiting with Frank De Vol
10/9 “(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons” by Eddy Howard

1946

10/10 “Personality” by Johnny Mercer & The Pied Pipers
10/11 “To Each His Own” by The Ink Spots
10/12 “Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop” by Tex Beneke with the Glenn Miller Orchestra
10/13 “Surrender” by Perry Como
10/14 “Symphony” by Freddy Martin